Shuttered for years, Mannywood is re-opening in LA under new management.

Despite reported hurdles with some of the medical reports involved, the Dodgers finalized a deal Wednesday sending a package of five minor-league prospects to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Manny Machado.

Just over two months after losing one All-Star shortstop (Corey Seager) for the season, the Dodgers will replace him with another All-Star shortstop. The addition of Machado immediately makes the Dodgers favorites to win a second consecutive NL pennant and fortifies them for a potential World Series showdown with the offensive juggernauts in Houston and Boston.

But Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi brushed aside the expectations created by trading for a player of Machado’s magnitude.

“We’re in a division race that features four really good teams within four games of each other,” Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi said after the trade was announced. “It’s obviously a different division dynamic than we had last year. At this point we’re going into the trade deadline and I think we have to pursue and evaluate every opportunity to make this team better.

“We viewed Manny Machado as a big difference-maker and potentially the biggest difference-maker who was going to be available going into this trade deadline. So he was obviously a very high priority for us.”

Double-A outfielder Yusniel Diaz, who hit two home runs in the All-Star Futures Game on Sunday, is the centerpiece of the prospects package going to Baltimore. Also in the deal are Triple-A utilityman Breyvic Valera, Double-A right-handers Dean Kremer and Zach Pop and Class-A infielder Rylan Bannon.

“As far as the risk-reward of trading top prospects, it’s always easier not to trade top prospects. You always prefer to be able to keep all that talent in-house,” Zaidi said. “But as the old saying goes, you have to give something to get something and Manny Machado is obviously a premium player.”

A two-time Gold Glove winner at third base, Machado is rated very poorly for his defense at shortstop this season. But the 26-year-old is having his best offensive season with career-highs across the board at this point – a .315/.387/.575 slash line with 24 home runs and 65 RBI in 96 games.

Machado could be the most accomplished position player to change teams at the trade deadline since Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez came west (to the Angels and Dodgers, respectively) two days apart in 2008. But it would continue an aggressive trend under Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and Zaidi.

At or around the non-waiver trade deadline the past three seasons, the Dodgers made big moves to address perceived needs on their roster, acquiring 13 major-league players (and three who never made it onto their active major-league roster). Eleven of them have been pitchers, most prominently Alex Wood in 2015, Rich Hill in 2016 and Yu Darvish in 2017.

This time, the Dodgers moved to add the best hitter available on the midseason market despite reaching the All-Star break with an offense that ranked first in the National League in home runs, second in slugging percentage and third in OPS.

Machado has been quoted recently saying he wanted to continue to play shortstop after any trade. But Zaidi said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has already spoken with Machado and expressed “how much we value flexibility and versatility and having guys move around a little bit.” The expectation is Machado will play some third base as well as shortstop for the Dodgers with the current shortstop Chris Taylor (who moved from center field after Seager underwent Tommy John surgery) joining Kike’ Hernandez in a ‘super-utility’ role, moving between center field, second base and shortstop.

“Everybody is sort of on the same page about that,” Zaidi said of Machado playing third and shortstop. “He understands the way we manage the roster and the options Doc likes to have moving guys around. He’s told us he wants to do whatever he can to help this team succeed and win. So he’s on board.”

He is probably only on board for the next three months. Machado is headed to free agency this winter and has made it clear he looks forward to testing the market. The Dodgers will have to break from recent practice if they are going to bid to re-sign Machado.

“Let’s have him at least show up in a Dodger uniform before we start asking those type of questions,” Zaidi said with a chuckle. “I know this is about 2018 for us. We hope he plays well and creates a good market for himself. We’re not worried about what happens beyond 2018 now.”

That is not entirely true. The Dodgers have been focused since last winter on avoiding competitive-balance tax penalties beyond 2018. Machado’s addition pushes the Dodgers close to the luxury-tax threshold, a complication they will have to overcome if they are going to add bullpen help – the team’s greatest need before and after the trade for Machado.

Before the trade, the Dodgers had between $6 million and $10 million room (depending on accounting tricks and bonuses) below the $197 million threshold at which punitive tax measures would kick in. Machado has approximately $6.3 million of his $16 million salary left this season, eating up most if not all of the Dodgers’ cushion.

If the Dodgers are going to create additional room for other trades before the July 31 deadline it might require them to get creative and offload a veteran salary to create room. Infielder Logan Forsythe and left-hander Alex Wood are the most obvious candidates. Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu could become candidates but both are currently on the DL with injuries and probably won’t play until August.

“We’re going to continue to shop and look for ways to make the team better,” Zaidi said. “We’ll deal with any potential financial hurdles as they come up.”

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.